Rivin
Details
Full Name: Rivin
Race: Lysanrin Stormborn/Dratori, with probably human in there too
Sex: Male
Age: 23
Height: 5'11
Weight: 140
Birthdate: 1 Ash, 99
Birthplace: Estate Outside Zaichaer
Profession: Informant
Housing: A house shared with Sivan Sunrunner
Partners: Aurin Kavafis, Sivan Sunrunner
Titles: Slave
Factions: None
Fluencies: Common, Gelarian
Conversationals: Rivach
Ineptitudes: None
Appearance
Rivin is an odd-looking young man, possessing the fine features of his Dratori heritage, along with the delicacy of a Stormborn.
His skin is pale but not outside the ordinary for a human at first glance. If studied one begins to recognize the faint blueish tint over it, making his lips appear almost purple. There is no mistaking the two horns that sprout from his forehead and curve back over his head, the ends curling out almost like sheep's ears. They are a more obvious blue and white, but still pale, almost ghostly in coloring.
He stands a modest 5'1; sleek figure and horns making his height harder to determine for those not quite near to him. His mode of dress and grooming are entirely decided by the man who owns him. His hair is kept short, and through obedience and manipulation, he is allowed enough food and even exercise to keep his body strong.
Personality
Rivin keeps himself to himself at first, remaining quiet when he is introduced to a society or a person until he can learn how best to fit with them. When he has decided he knows how to act he will come out of his quiet suddenly, as though he were merely distracted and is now fully invested in the situation. Having an often secluded upbringing, his limited experience often causes him to come to incorrect conclusions about customs or expectations, but his instincts about what a person wants from him are rarely wrong.
Such instincts kept him alive and in favor when many others were left to rot in cells or given worse fates. Rivin's life has held plenty of suffering, and his ability to read people was developed due to this, so, while he may appear charming in simple situations he is manipulative and entirely self-motivated. His sense of humor is odd, rarely manifesting as he doesn't have a good enough grasp of social norms to understand how things are funny. His self-expression when anyone is present is so ingrained into projecting what he wants to be seen that when he is alone he rarely has any expression at all. It is likely he has no idea who he actually is behind his unquenchable desire to survive and nearly infinitely adaptable mask.
The Dratori rage was strong in the boy when he was young, and it is strong still, only, like every other aspect of him, it had to adapt. When he loses his temper, which is now rarely, he loses time, forgetting what has happened, and what terrible things he might have done before calming back down. He has accepted this, as with most things he had no choice, and has grown adept at obfuscating what damage or crimes he commits while blacked out.
History
Rivin's mother was a slave, born and raised inside the Imperium. The lives of Lysanrin slaves were typically characterized in obscurity and occasionally brutality but some, the strong or the determined, found an opening to show their value. His mother did so when she heard a rumor that a well-known and respected Noble House was looking specifically for Lysanrin slaves. She knew there were other races in her blood but she looked like a pure Stormborne. Managing to get word into the right ears so the ones who owned her would know she could earn them riches, she was brought before the representatives of the noble house and deemed worthy. The look the representative gave her, in fact, made her wonder if her value to him was not too high.
She was taken from her birthplace and delivered to a palatial estate where she was kept in a cell but well-fed, given everything she needed, and was left unmolested. Which, to her was a great improvement. She did not resist, and indeed, did all she could to ingratiate herself to her new masters. She was young, and, for her race and considered beautiful, yet, they did not seem interested in her charms in that way. Healers were brought in to investigate her health, her diet was adjusted until she was at the peak of health, and medicines or magic were employed to cure any illness. When she was as healthy as could be, her master began to do things she didn't understand. Taking samples of her blood, skin, spit, tears, even shaving bits from her horns. Other than the sample taking, which was never very painful, she was left alone.
After almost a year in her new home when the gentle care was beginning to lose some of its charm in the face of endless loneliness and boredom, finally, something was required of her. A large male of a race she did not know; his skin was an odd color, his ears pointed, his body strong, was brought into her cell and she was made to understand that she was required to mate with him, but only until she became pregnant. Having been subjected to unwanted sex before she knew how to end the encounters quickly, and it only took a few times before a magical healer confirmed she was with child.
Rivin came into the world in due time, and she was allowed to nurse and raise him herself. She taught him the language of the Imperium, along with Common, for it was almost the only thing she had to teach. When he was weaned his mother was required to become pregnant again, and was kept more or less continuously so while he was with her. The other children were not kept with Rivin and his mother, which he never knew to question. His skin, blood, etc, were also taken from him periodically, and whatever it was that was found appeared to please his owner. They were sometimes kept in the cells, but sometimes allowed nicer rooms where they could get sunlight and run and play in the grassed inner court yards. He was taken from his mother regularly once he could walk, taught to read, write, and speak Common.
When he was twelve he was taken with their master, a refined human male who was in control of all the experiments, to the city of Zaichaer; his mother was left behind and he never saw her again. He was smart and had been taught from birth to look for ways to show his value to the one who owned him. He showed willingness, and even aptitude for the experiments done, and, over time, earned the trust of his master. The freedom this earned him was periodic, and he still sometimes found himself locked in a cell, but at other times he was allowed to assist in the experiments, and learn what he could. Now and then others, who he thought of as masters, came to inspect the work being done, and he learned to adjust his personality to please whoever had control.
When he was seventeen his master told him that he had passed all the tests and would be given a very special privilege. The way this was said put Rivin immediately into survival mode, but he kept his outward expression eager and obedient. He was brought into a room and strapped face down. He assumed he was about to be used, as his mother had been used, but it was not so. He was not sure what happened, but it hurt, and beyond that, it felt... changing. Something was written into his spine, carefully, and it took time. He tried to stay awake, but, by the end, he lost consciousness.
When he woke, not knowing how much time had passed, he began to hear voices and he was sick, in mind and body, for months. When he was well again, his master had a mage come in and give him very basic training. Enough that he wouldn't randomly summon spirits by accident. For this was what had been done to him, he had received the Rune of Summoning.
Many tests were done on him thereafter, and he submitted to all of them as best he could. The voices that had come with the Rune didn't go away, making it difficult to sleep, and at times he thought he could see things that didn't exist. His rages, which had plagued him and earned him beatings as a child, began to come back on him, and as he grew less stable he was allowed less and less freedom until he was locked in a cell at all times. It was therein that one of the voices began to make sense, coming more and more often, offering more and more power and freedom until Rivin could resist him no longer. He made a pact, stepped sideways through reality, and gave up a part of himself. The rages still came, but when they did not, he became blissfully unaware, and when he woke, whatever had been causing his issue was gone, in one way or another.
It is there he is still, sometimes let out of his cell now that he has stabilized, waiting for the promise of the voice in his head to come to fruition.
